


Hot Dogs and Overheated Costumes don't mix

by Yami_Kada7



Series: Link Up [10]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS
Genre: Breaking and Entering, But is it really when it's your boyfriend's house?, Costumes, Day 10, Kusanagi had better watch out, M/M, National Hot Dog Day, Other Characters Briefly Mentioned - Freeform, Ryoken likes it when he's angry, VRAINS Week 2018, Yusaku is pissed, choose your method of costume destruction, hot sweaty pissed off Yusaku, town festival
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-19
Updated: 2018-08-07
Packaged: 2019-06-13 02:38:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,452
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15354390
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yami_Kada7/pseuds/Yami_Kada7
Summary: Yusaku stood in one of the busier areas of the festival, holding a giant sign advertising where to find Cafe Nagi. He could feel sweat dripping down the back of his costume, and he was running the risk of losing his grip on the cardboard through the fuzzy gloves he was wearing.How exactly should he destroy it once the day was over?





	1. The Festival

**Author's Note:**

> I didn't focus as much on the hot dogs as the prompt originally suggested... but I missed a few days, this is late, and I enjoyed writing it.  
> So instead you all get to deal with a hot, sweaty, pissed off Yusaku.

It was a hot, sunny day in Den City, and the local festival was up and running. People were screaming by on the rides, everyone in town packed into the large park in the middle of the city.

Not that you could tell that it was a park, with all of the food stands and game booths covering the area.

Yusaku stood towards one of the far ends of the festival, holding a giant sign advertising where to find Café Nagi. He could feel sweat dripping down the back of his costume, and he was running the risk of losing his grip on the cardboard through the fuzzy gloves he was wearing. People kept bumping into him, the costume was riding up on him, children kept asking for pictures (which he didn’t mind, it usually meant he could give up on holding the sign for a few seconds.), and the whole thing was just humiliating on a level he hadn’t known in a very long time.

At least Takeru had been roped into wearing a similar one on the other end of the celebrations.

He glared towards the middle of the festival, in the general direction of Café Nagi. Kusanagi-san didn’t need any help advertising, every other year that he had appeared at this festival he had only gotten more popular. Having not only one but both of them going through this was utterly pointless and he fully intended to burn the stupid dog costume as soon as he was free to go.

A familiar voice sounded from behind him. “Come on, Aoi, this is a good chance to do something different. Please give it a chance.”

He turned slightly, following the Zaizens from behind the safety of his heavy mask. The two of them were walking by, accompanied by another lady who was eating a cone of ice cream.

“Alright, Onii-sama, I’ll try.” Zaizen-san said, eyes roaming listlessly around the grounds. Her eyes caught on him, then drifted down to the sign he was holding. Crap, she was walking towards him now, with the other two in tow.

“Excuse me, but do you know if Fujiki is working today?” Her tone was flat, and he could only guess that she wanted to talk to him because they were both bored by crowded, _pointless_ events like these.

He nodded and, against his better judgement, spoke up. “Good afternoon, Zaizen-san.”

She blinked, then looked him up and down again. She stood and stared at him for a moment, then doubled over. She was laughing. Yusaku could feel his eye twitch.

What on earth was so funny?! He turned pointedly away from her, moving the sign around just enough to be noticed by a family who were eyeing up the food stands. The little boy pointed excitedly at the person in the giant puppy costume, and the parents gave his sign considering glances before they moved farther down the fairgrounds.

A hand tapped his shoulder, and he turned enough to look at Zaizen-san over said shoulder. She was wiping tears from her eyes with a large grin on her face. “Sorry, it’s just- I never would have expected you to agree to wear something like this. It took me by surprise.” She was still biting her lip to keep from bursting out again, but at least she bothered to apologize.

“It’s fine,” he tried to keep the aggravation out of his voice, “I’ve been getting similar reactions all day, although no one else laughed because it was me in the costume.”

Zaizen Akira chose that moment to speak up. “Aoi, would you mind introducing us to your friend?” He seemed entirely unaware of the woman with the ice cream who was now clinging to his arm.

“He’s just a classmate, Onii-sama. I thought that I’d stop by his workplace to talk, but it turned out he was here.” She waved her hand at him, “Advertising.” She bit her lip again to control herself.

Yusaku gave the barest bow, the most he could manage in the costume. “I believe we met before at the hospital, Zaizen Akira-san. I hope you are enjoying the festivities.” He had to grit his teeth to get the words out. Should he use matches and wood or gasoline to burn the costume?

As Zaizen Akira’s face cleared, the woman had decided to start cooing at him. “Aw, that costume is just adorable! Can we get a picture with you please~?” She was grabbing one of his hands in both of hers, clearly not going to take no for an answer.

Yusaku let out a sigh. “I don’t mind, go ahead.” The woman clapped her hands, bouncing slightly as she roped a passing guy into taking a picture of the group with a camera provided by Zaizen Akira. She planted Zaizen-san on one end, Yusaku next to her, then squeezed in herself dragging Zaizen Akira behind.

“Everyone say hot dog!”

“Hot dog!” Yusaku and Zaizen-san refused to say anything.

She snatched the camera out of the other man’s hands, looking over the pictures. “They’re great! Thank you!” The other man was off on his way. The bizarre lady rounded on Yusaku once more. “Thanks for cheering up Aoi-chan, boy~. We’re definitely going to go get some of those hot dogs now, right~?” She addressed the last question to Zaizen Akira.

He rolled his eyes, then nodded. “Why not? I could use some food, and if you’ll vouch for it, then the food must not be too bad.” He nodded goodbye to Yusaku as the mysterious woman pulled him away.

Zaizen-san turned to him. “Sorry about her, she can be a bit much sometimes. She usually means well, though.” She started walking after the two of them, calling back, “See you at school!”

He waved a hand after her, his other hand losing his grip on the sign. He picked it back up out of the dust, brushing it off. He was definitely using gasoline to destroy the stupid costume.

But for now, it was time to sell some hot dogs.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It was originally going to be a hot dog costume... but then I remembered the time Joey lost a bet to Duke and then this happened.  
> Sorry to disappoint.  
> Please let me know what you thought and if you have any suggestions/critiques!


	2. The Aftermath

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yusaku gets home from the festival late at night, and Ryoken is very pleased with the situation.
> 
> I edited this chapter because I wasn't satisfied with it at all... just small things that bugged me and all that, you know.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Someone who commented on the first chapter was interested in an epilogue, so here it is! Yay, I added datastormshipping!

The door to the apartment swung open, hitting the wall with a bang. Shoes clattered to the floor, and footsteps fell heavily through the hallway towards where Ryoken was making his way up the stairs from the living room.

He paused a few steps from the top, the volume of the entry so high that for a moment he thought that someone else than who he was expecting had entered. He really hoped that he had broken into the right apartment, because this person sounded like they would bite his head off.

Taking a breath, he squared his shoulders and turned the landing, coming face to face with Yusaku.

Or, he assumed it was Yusaku. It was hard to tell through the costume.

For a heartbeat the figure froze, and then relaxed. “What are you doing here, Ryoken? I thought I told you I would be helping out Kusanagi-san today.” The fuzzy hands came up, taking hold of the ears and heaving the head over Ryoken to crash to the living room floor far below.

Ryoken swallowed.

Yusaku was flushed red from the heat, hair clinging to his neck and cheeks through drops of sweat, and his face was scrunched up the way that Ryoken had only ever seen in extremely intense duels. His eyes burned as he twisted his arms to try to reach the zipper at his back, only to huff when the gloves made it impossible.

Ryoken swallowed, searching for his voice. “Yes, but I was under the impression that he said that you were manning the grill for a short while… What happened?”

Yusaku scowled again, going around Ryoken to descend the stairs to the living room and settling down onto the couch. “He did say that, but it was a trap made by him and Takeru to get me there. They threw this at me, wrangled a sign into my hands, and sent me off to one side of the festival. And Ai put a tracker on me, so I couldn’t just leave.” He pointed at his throat, and Ryoken’s breath hitched at the collar complete with a tag that was settled there.

He took his time moving down the steps as Yusaku continued his rant. “And I still can’t get the thing off! He said that the auto-lock would disengage tomorrow morning, but knowing him it’ll be there until I find out where he is and make him unlock it.” He reached around for his back again, but the cloth of the costume slipped right off of the tiny slider nestled in the folds of the costume.

He gave up right when Ryoken lowered himself to the couch to his left. He turned away, offering up his back. “Help me get this off. I need to burn it as soon as possible.”

The near-pout cast over his boyfriend’s shoulder was almost too much to resist, but Ryoken forced himself to stand strong. He brought his hand up to the fabric, and Yusaku’s shoulders eased down, but instead of reaching for the slider his hand came around to finger the tag on the front of the collar.

“What are you-” Ryoken settled against his boyfriend’s back, squinting down at the text carved on the front of the smooth metal oval.

He let out a small laugh. “Do you know what this says, Yusaku?”

Yusaku tried to shift away from him, but a quick arm around his waist put a stop to that. “No, I can’t read it from this angle. Why? What did he put on it?” How cute, Yusaku looked ready to bite someone’s head off.

“It says,” Ryoken contained his laughter enough to say, “Yusaku-chan.”

Yusaku growled, his hands fisting into the fabric like he might shred it at any moment. “The next time I get my hands on that AI, I’m tearing his code apart piece by piece.” Yusaku vowed, turning back toward him. “Do we have any lighter fluid on hand? I want to get this over with so that I can hunt down that Ignis.” Ryoken thought that the fire in his eyes would be enough to set the costume alight, but it seemed that the fake fur was more resilient than he had first thought.

Ryoken hummed in thought. “No, I think we’ll have to go to the store. You don’t tend to stock up on flammable liquids.” Then he realized what Yusaku had said, and he smirked. “Oh Yusaku, if I knew that that was all it would take to get you to agree to destroy the Ignis, I would have dropped a similar suggestion to Ai a long time ago."

Yusaku’s face broke into a scowl and he shoved off the arm around his waist, turning back towards Ryoken with eyes that promised pain. “Knock it off. I’m not joining the Knights no matter how many times you ask.”

Ryoken let out a sigh, letting the tag run through his fingers. It bounced off the buckle of the leather band, and he noticed a flash of text on the opposite side. “Oh? There’s more written here.”

Yusaku frowned. “More? God, what else could he have put on there?”

Ryoken smirked. “Don’t worry, I’ll tell you what it says.”

He flipped the tag over, and this time he couldn’t help but let out a sharp laugh. The back had his address on it, with a short note to return the wearer there if found. He tried to smother his humor by burying his head into Yusaku’s shoulder, but if the tense form was anything to go by, he was only making his boyfriend angrier.

Yusaku tried to pull away again, but instead of meeting resistance he found himself being pushed down into the couch cushions, lips meeting his to keep him pinned in place. For a few moments he let his boyfriend have his way, but then he brought his arms up and shoved him off.

They laid there for a moment, catching their breath. Then Ryoken smirked and sat up, pulling Yusaku upright as well. He moved his hands to Yusaku’s shoulders, turning him around.

He caught the slider between his fingers and eased it down, taking care not to snag it in any of the fur along the way. Yusaku let out a quiet sigh at the feeling of the fabric peeling away from his skin.

And then the light breeze from the air conditioning hit him and he shivered, leaning in to the heat source that he was sure was all too eager to draw him in closer. But then the warmth was pulling away, and he shot his boyfriend a look, tilting his head to the side.

Ryoken was frowning at him. He glanced up and down Yusaku’s torso at the sweat-drenched tank top he was wearing. “Were you wearing this when you left today? I thought you had a black t-shirt on.”

Yusaku could feel heat rising in his cheeks, so he looked away. “Well… when Takeru and Kusanagi-san were trying to convince me to wear the monstrosity, Kusanagi-san was giving me his reasoning when Takeru told me I’d be too hot in it and pulled it off. So since they wouldn’t let me out of the truck without the costume on, I decided to just get it over with and put on some lighter clothes before putting the costume on over them.”

To say Ryoken was planning harm to Takeru for tricking his boyfriend into a strip tease was to call the Sun a lightbulb. Yes, the costume would have to go to prevent any future instances. Mind made up, he stood up from the couch.

“Well, I’ll be off to the store then to get that lighter fluid.” Yusaku’s eyes brightened considerably at that.

“Guess I should clean myself up while you’re gone, then…” Yusaku stood up, and the costume peeled off with a wet flop. He stepped out of it, kicking the lump to a corner of the room with as much force as a direct attack could possibly have.

Yusaku proceeded up the stairs and to the door to his room. It closed behind him, leaving Ryoken alone in the silence.

He climbed the small flight, making his way past the silent door and to the front entryway, then pulled on his shoes before stepping out to head to the convenience store down the street.

* * *

Should he just get a can of lighter fluid, or a gallon of gasoline? His eyes drifted over the shelves, weighing the pros and cons of each item before his gaze caught on a package in the corner.

That should do the trick.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wonder where they're going to find Takeru's body... XD
> 
> Please let me know what you thought of this, as romance is very hard for me to write! Suggestions and critiques are very much appreciated!
> 
> Should I write the destruction of the costume? That could be fun. But I need ideas as to all the methods of destruction to use. So let me know how you would want to see it destroyed as well!


End file.
